I noticed a few wind reports last night that were more than impressive — especially in the eastern half of the state. I think it was Lewistown that had 71 mph. I’ll take a little snow over that kind of wind any day. I always enjoyed the first, light snows. By the time they came, the landscape usually was looking pretty bedraggled, especially the fields, and it really made things much nicer.

The wind was pretty light here but we were still out of power all night. I woke when the power went out at about midnight, looked at the warm glow from the wood stove and went right back to sleep. Northwest of us there was some wind damage and lots of people out of power.

A friend from Washington told me that there were gusts of 110mph at Snoqualomie last night and western Washington had high winds, heavy rain, flooding and mudslides.

This little valley in which I live is indeed a good place to be when inclement weather visits because we are sheltered by mountain ranges close by on both sides. The winds are fierce on the high ridges, but fairly docile in the valley.

That’s an interesting area. At times during the winter it can be extremely cold there and at other times those south slopes will be bare of snow. The highway is always treacherous during winter because there are shady spots that are ice covered. One winter morning I watched a snowplow slide nearly off the road there on a curve.